that's quite a compliment! thanks bud. my name is kara marie....not to be confused with kara maria, who is a famous artist in san francisco with a very different style than mine. i can't seem to find your work on the progressive galleries site. got a direct link?

Wow! that is some mad skillage. I love india ink, and Montana black ink. it is so opaque and glossy, the absolute perfect outline...if you've never tried it i highly recommend it. Please keep up your great work.

I am so happy the art sub-reddit got started. I went to start it myself but some one beat me to it. Lets get it on the front page!. Here is my blog. There isn't much on there but if people start looking at it I might be inclined to update more often. http://hotcacophony.blogspot.com/

I'm a self employed graphic designer. I currently freelance as the new layout/art director for beyond race magazine, design ads and layout for smaller clients, write and publish a full page comic for a quarterly magazine, and am working on several commissioned illustrations.

I'll walk down 14th St by NYC's Union Square, see my work in the front window display, and get pissed off about not knowing if I'll have enough to eat by the end of the month.

I don't mean to sound like a total douche, but maybe it's time you worked on improving your skills a bit so you can work for someone else (who pays better) or picking up more clients. I know how slow going it can be to get established as a freelancer (it took me a good 2-3 years to make a respectable income and build up a steady client list), but after looking at your work, I can't help but think that some practice and branching out a bit might improve your situation. Looking at your site, it appears you could use some practice in the areas of color theory, composition, and I'd suggest trying to avoid using so much text. If you have to use so much text to get your point across, you might want to consider a different approach...

Thanks for the pointers. I have only been freelancing for less than a year, and have been busting my ass. Improve my skills? I see no harm in that, and I appreciate your honesty. However, I just redesigned a magazine, that is now being picked up by a national distributor, BECAUSE of the redesign. Then again, maybe you didnt see the rest of the comments. I'm half joking about my poverty.

Have you seen the selection at Barnes And Noble? Quality of design clearly isn't a priority in whether or not they pick up a magazine for distribution (check out any hunting or fishing magazine for an example of what I mean). It's all about potential sales, which is determined more by content, not design quality of a magazine. I won't go as far as to say it has no bearing - but by your logic I could redesign a magazine about eating squirrels for breakfast, and if I made it look awesome enough, it'd get picked up by B&N.

Anyway, by improve your skills, I should rather say try to make your work stand out more. I see nothing really eye catching. You may want to reduce the amount of work shown in your portfolio as well. There's a few things in there that are rather sterile. The Hi-Tek spread for example. Portfolios are all about quality, not quantity. This applies to everything from demo reels to art school entrance portfolios, to work portfolios. One could replace the title of your magazine with any number of similar themed magazines and no one would know the difference. It's generic. It's going to look like all the other magazines next to it on the rack. Not good when the market is saturated with such "urban/hipster/music/"culture"" magazines.

Again, I don't mean to be a dick, as I said I know how hard it can be to establish oneself as a freelance artist, and your best bet is to stand out. Sure, you might be able to get by with a mediocre portfolio, but the more you stand out and push the limits, the better your opportunities will be as a result.

Anyway, maybe I am a dick, I don't know, nor do I care, it's not my intent. The thing is, all too often on sites such as cgtalk and others that I used to frequent, and in general when it comes to art related sites online, no one seems willing to actually critique anymore. It's all about patting each other on the back, and artists are never going to improve if all they hear is "awesome job! 5 stars from me!!" That's not to say everything needs/deserves a "negative" critique, but people don't even bother saying what's good about a work these days, it's just all generic back slapping and high fiving. I'll just shut up with my rambling though.

Just to let you know, I didn't downmod any of your comments, nor did I take any personal offense. Its actually refreshing to see real critiques. It really is. I also agree with some of what you're saying esp about the mag and B&N. Thing is, the mag had tried to get picked up by them for like 2 years now, and the distributor finally picked us up and actually said the reason they did so was because of the re-design.

It may not seem like a big deal to you, understandably so, but as a young freelancer, who's just beginning, I think its a good sign.

As for limiting my portfolio, my actual print portfolio only contains a small number of smaples. And you are right. There should only be a few examples. I just threw them all up there on my website.

I'd LOVE to do more creative stand out there work, but thats not the easiest thing to convince a client into. Most people shy away from stuff they've never seen before, and I've had to push to get things to where they are now, and I'm still told to be more conservative.

Well then, I take back my comment about design being a particular priority for them (at least in your case) - my apologies.

And yes, it is a good sign. I'm fairly young too (26), so I know how good it can feel. I tried tackling freelance around the age of 18, and it took me a good 2-3 years to really establish myself. Then I switched focus a few years ago after establishing myself as a graphic designer/illustrator in favor of strictly doing 3D modeling/design, so I kind have had to go through the whole process all over again.

I should also point out that I sometimes make the mistake of trying to push other artists, because I personally happen to thrive on that kind of thing. I don't thrive on critiquing other people's work, but rather I strive to push myself when I'm on the receiving end of critiques. I need to work on realizing not everyone is like me though. I should have also made more of an effort to point out the positives of your work too, which I'll try and do later if I think of it, but for now it's back to work.

Currently on a major dry spell due to being a little down about my current situation. =( I got screwed out of my art degree by my university, so now I have a general degree and have to find a grad school that fits my needs.

Right now I have a backlog of Christmas presents to do, as well as a few pieces of technology sculpture from a series I was working on about a year and a half ago to finish.

It's great and encouraging to see other artists on here!! I love seeing everyone's work, it's fantastic!

I'm not really an artist, but I think like one. I've done a few sculptures and installations as part of my architectural studies. Here's something I did for fun a while ago using GlovePIE, PowerPoint, a Wii remote, and a projector:

I'm Bud Clay Thomas, self taught college drop-out painter, who works on promo material for indie bands and am currently showing in Harrisburg, PA at Progressive Galleries. http://www.progressivegalleries.com.

I am a fabric and ceramic artist who has pretty much stopped functioning creatively because of psyche meds that are not working other than to make me physically inactive, and inefficient treatment of what the doctor "can't swear is narcolepsy" though he thinks I "might have it." I was working on a hand-dyed and hand-stitched textural tapestry which has now been put aside. I'll get back ot it sometime. Also doing some photoshopping of some of some photography.

I wouldn't really consider myself an artist, but I bought a good-quality DSLR last year for my birthday and I've been having a lot of fun taking pictures. I've been coming up with about 10-20 good shots a month.

I'm not working on anything at the moment, but my last project was a piece of wearable art. It commented on the elegance of the process of coal formation.
I'm an atheist, so I wanted to show something I find beautiful that is beyond simple aesthetic beauty.

Working out leveraged buyouts (golden parachutes) and trading is just my day job, I'm secretly an author and electronic musician dreaming of the day I can leave my cushy job and be a true starving artist.

Wait, all of that is true up to the starving artist bit. But I'll leave my stage name and nom de plume to the imagination as I've grown too accustomed to internet anonymity.

Hey, thanks a lot. It's hard to say where I get ideas from exactly, but for that one, I'd been reading a lot of Cesar Vallejo and Gary Snyder poetry, and sort of used their influence to try to channel a description of the dying Winter. Also, I tend to tie my emotional state to the day or season a lot. Much of my poetry tries to build a new language for talking about the abstract that reaches beyond similes and conventional "poetic" methods (not to say that makes me unique).

I'm no Artist, I make a living at Industrial Illustration and Drafting. while the bulk of what I do these days is Autocadd, ProE, and Archicad, I still have Clients That like that I still Draw at the board with Pen and Ink. I'm also Probaly the last guy alive that still Hand Letters Drawings with the Leroy! Like I say I'm no Artist, I get Paid for my work, and I don't do Organics, only mechanical! I also don't do abstract BULL SHIT!

The interiors in the kind of building I would be likely to work on do not require any Fruity designer or Artchitect. like I say I DO NOT DO art, I do industrial illustration, like Machinery and large Data center instillations. Everything I do is a Result of function Not fashion! Most "Artists" I've ever met were nothing more than third rate Hacks using the "ART" thing as excuses to produce SHIT and Charge too much for it. The thing that Bothers me about the "artist" title is unlike being an "Architect" or a "PE" is that there is no standard by which one is judged. there is no review process to earn the title. Any Yahoo or Hack can and often do call themselves an "ARTIST". and bad Artists like Cristo only Cheapen my skill set ! and yes I do not have a "Talent" or any fruity thing like that, what I do is a skill and a Hard Earned skill

I guess your just the tool that's used to make the art, because somebody is designing that building. However, there is such a thing as bad art, but you misunderstand the purpose of the art you criticize. It can be "fruity" design stuff and it can also be a utility to expand your horizons. Also Cristo does the largest installation art I've ever heard of or seen, and that is worth something. Those programs you know are technical, it is too bad you do someone elses bidding with them...

Actor, Poet. Currently working on a production of Neil Simon's Rumours before heading to NYC to study at Stella Adler Studio. Published very little poetry, still amassing a collection of works. Rather hefty by now, but...I just don't feel ready to try to publish...